385 - Peter Leithart - The Bible As a Way of Seeing

The Symbolic World

Jonathan Pageau

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 824 Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this conversation I interview Peter Leithart, an American author, minister, and theologian, who serves as president of Theopolis Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, & Cultural Studies in Birmingham, Alabama. We discuss the origins, mission, and theological insights of Theopolis Institute and the influence of James B. Jordan, who wrote the influential book titled “Through New Eyes”. We further discuss the significance of biblical typology, and the transformative power of liturgy and sacraments in understanding scripture and shaping Christian life. We explore the interconnectedness of biblical narratives, the cultural shifts towards a deeper understanding of scripture, and the importance of sacramental life in recognizing Christ.

YouTuber version: https://youtu.be/Ug_ZGvfBcuE
Follow Peter Leithart: https://x.com/PLeithart

-Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World, by James B. Jordan: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-New-Eyes-Developing-Biblical/dp/157910259X
-The End of Protestantism: Pursuing Unity in a Fragmented Church, by Peter J. Leithart: https://www.amazon.com/End-Protestantism-Pursuing-Fragmented-Church/dp/158743377X
-Revelation Explained: An Interpretation by James B. Jordan: Volume One: Dragon, by James B. Jordan (Author), Dean W. Arnold (Editor): https://www.amazon.com/Revelation-Explained-Interpretation-Jordan-Dragon/dp/1733335633

Timestamps:
00:00 - Coming up
00:50 - Intro music
01:15 - Introduction
02:19 - Theopolis Institute
05:28 - Initial influences
07:23 - Themes in Scripture
17:47 - Reality/history rhymes
20:33 - The Bible as a way of seeing
23:36 - Sacraments
31:53 - Creation
34:23 - How is this being received?
37:35 - Critical Biblical scholarship and references
46:15 - Fundamentalism
49:39 - Typology is the key
51:53 - Bringing it to experience
54:20 - The Fathers
01:00:56 - Hopes for the future

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My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson: https://matthewwilkinson.net/

Transcript

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0:00.0	as you say, those are patterns that are there in life as well as in the text.
0:04.0	And part of the value of recognizing the Bible is it illumines those life patterns.
0:09.0	We can begin to see the movement of our lives through these Bible eyes.
0:13.0	Yeah, I mean, I think that that to me has been the most crucial thing.
0:17.0	You know, a lot of the things that I do is to help people see how the Bible in some ways is the truest version of a pattern that fills everything.
0:24.6	You know, it's not, you know, it's actually the pattern of creation itself.
0:27.6	It's the pattern that God created the world with.
0:29.6	And therefore, it can be found in all things.
0:32.6	But in scripture, definitely, it appears in this most pristine form.
0:36.6	So in some ways, it's a, it's like a tuning fork, even beyond even just the morality,
0:42.1	because we often think of the Bible as just offering us moral codes.
0:45.4	But beyond the morality, it's a structural tuning fork for our lives.
1:02.0	Music lives. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world. Hello, everyone.
1:16.6	I am here with Peter Lightheart.
1:19.6	I think most of you who are watching this will know who he is.
1:22.6	Peter is the president of the Theopolis Institute.
1:25.6	He's also written number, amounts of books.
1:27.9	You know, he's been in ministry also for most of his life.
1:30.9	And so those of you have seen that I've already interviewed someone from Theopolis.
1:37.4	And what you don't know is that one of the very first public discussions that I had,
1:41.5	I went to the University of Toronto. Someone came right up to me.
1:45.4	His name is Burl Herniacek, great, great guy. He gave me a book by James Jordan called Through New
	...

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